Happy Halloween!

This year we have a Queen Elsa, a Ninja (again), Harry Potter, my Hawaiian vacation Man, and the skeleton mommy!

We had a lot of fun at our ward Trunk or Treat. Mason made a new friend, a kid from his school followed him around all night. I asked who he was and Mason just shrugged his shoulders. The boy introduced himself as David and said he just really liked Harry Potter. LOL Too cute!

I love to see the Temple

Our family went to the Phoenix Temple open house this week. We left our house around 5:30pm and didn't get home until about 10pm. Such a beautiful temple and well worth the hour drive. Because of parking limitations the church made arrangments for us to park at Wet N Wild just down the street from the temple and then take buses to the Temple grounds. Our kids thought that was pretty cool!  

 Sadly I only had my phone to take pictures with which means poor quality pics. :(

  I got a really big kick out of the kids in the white booties.

I really love going to the temple. This temple had some elaborate paintings and depictions of Christ;s life that I had never seen before. Beautiful artwork! There's just something special about being in the House of the Lord. I love the feelings I have when I'm close to the Temple. I hope my kids felt a little bit of that spirit today. It made for a late night for our family but totally worth the wait and drive.

 

Mason is a Cub Scout!

Tonight we celebrated Mason's first pack meeting. So far he absolutely loves cub scouts, I actually can't believe I have a child in cub scouts! I'm really grateful I have had callings in Cub Scouts because it's really helped me know what to expect and be able to help Mason. He earned his Bobcat and was awarded it tonight.

 He had to "BOB" for his bobcat award.

He even got to carry the flag in the flag ceremony tonight as part of color guard. I was a little nervous for him and his little high energy self. But he did great and followed commands perfectly!

 I got to pin his Wolf pin on upside down, we get to turn it around when he does 2 acts of service.

 I love this candid shot! Mason is such a people person and always seems to be the center of attention.  He has many friends and kids seem to gravitate towards him. I really hope he puts his leadership skills to good use and sets a good example. I'm very proud of him and look forward to seeing him become a stalwart young man.

They played a really cute game of musical chairs involving animal noises and cub scouts.

Mason's Baptism

This month has been an extremely busy but very exciting month for our family. Lots of birthdays in the past couple weeks! But the highlight of my month was preparing for, planning, and experiencing Mason's baptism. I can't believe I have an 8 year old boy!!! Before his baptism I tried to plan ahead and figure things out like pictures, baptism program, FHE lessons on Baptism, and just getting Mason ready. I took him down to the temple and took his pictures myself. We also had the missionaries over for dinner and asked them to talk to Mason about getting baptized.

Figuring out his Baptism Program:

When we asked Mason who he wanted to talk at his baptism he responded almost INSTANTLY "Uncle Nate!" I love how close he is to and idolizes his Uncle Nate. Nate gave a really good talk on the Holy Ghost. I love how he talked about the Godhead. He reviewed with Mason that our Father in Heaven is our Father, Jesus Christ is our Big Brother, and the Holy Ghost should be our Best Friend. I looked at Mason occasionally while Nate was speaking and I just love how captivated he was and I felt like he was really listening to Nate. 

I asked my good friends Christi and Alice to sing this beautiful song 

"My First Steps"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0wfbWZVtfc

Conducting: Jake Watkins

          Pianist:   Christi Jensen

Music Leader:   Lori Faler                                   

Opening Song:   Baptism

Opening Prayer:   Larry Huber (Grandfather)                                            

Musical Number:   “When I am Baptized”

Callie Huber, Ella Faler & Leah Dunaway

accompanied by Christi Jensen 

 Talk on Baptism: Shelly Huber (Mother)

 Baptism of Mason:   by Ron Huber (Father) 

 Witnesses:   Larry Huber, & Von Faler

                     Grandfathers              

 Musical Number: “My First Step”

Christi Jensen & Alice Johnson

accompanied by Erica Faler 

Talk on Holy Ghost:   Nate Cook (Uncle)                                            

Confirmation of Mason: by Ron Huber (Father) 

Closing Song:   I Stand All Amazed

                         (Mason’s Favorite song)   

Closing Prayer:   Von Faler (Grandfather)

 My one regret... I DID NOT take many pictures at ALL!!!! So sad! That's so not like me! I'm the queen of taking too many pictures! I didn't even get a picture of Ron and Mason all in white. :( I teased Ron about putting his wet clothes back on for a picture. (I was kind of half serious)

 Preparing my talk:
I was SHOCKED that I didn't get very emotional during his baptism. I'm pregnant and the emotions seem to fly plenty lately. I think I got all my tears and "moments" out while prepping and planning his baptism.

I started off reciting the 4th article of Faith and then had Mason come up for a little demonstration. 

I placed 2 papers on the ground (pretty far apart).

Mason come stand on the "START".

“Can you get from here to the white paper square without stepping on the carpet?”

Too far?... Heavenly Father has given us steps to bring us back to Him.

Do you know what they are?

1. Faith

2. Repentance

3. Baptism

4. Holy Ghost

5. Temple

6. Stay Righteous

I spoke to Mason about memories from my own baptism. I remember 3 things about my baptism day.

11. The water was actually really cold.

22. I remember my dad talking at my baptism. I would like to share with you what he told me.

I bought Mason a "Boogie Board" and pulled it out to show him.

I talked about how every time we goof up or maybe don’t act EXACTLY as Jesus would we make a mark on our slate.

When you get baptized it's like pushing this button, it wipes our slate clean.

33. The last thing I really remember about my baptism is how clean and fresh I felt. You can feel like that always if you keep following the steps of our Savior Jesus Christ. I know you are a strong young boy and very capable of many things. You have already experienced some pretty heavy trials at such a young age. I’m proud of you for making this decision today! I love you and I love my Savior Jesus Christ I have a testimony of his endless love for each and every one of his children. He wants us to return to live with him someday. I say these things…

My really good friend Nanna had this towel made for Mason. I LOVE it! I actually really felt loved by all those around me willing to help and be part of this big day for our family. My friend Erin worked all night long the night before and came to the baptism with her kids running on NO sleep AND brought cookies to help with refreshments. I had all kinds of help from friends and family in the kitchen and with the program. I really felt loved and am grateful to have such good people in my life.

Noah is 6!

Noah wanted a Robot Birthday Party! We planned on borrowing my parents projector and showed the movie "The Iron Giant" in the backyard. The kids got to make "robot cans" and accessorize the cans themselves. I was very impressed with their creativity and excitement over making these cups.

Ron even got into the robot making!

Noah's ONE request was that I make a robot cake. I'm not very creative and don't especially enjoy baking. But Noah isn't very particular so when he has a request I feel like I should try to accommodate. I think he liked it and that's all that matters.

It was a little crazy but I was surprised at how well it went! Because it was October Break I really didn't expect very many kids but we ended up having over a dozen kids at the house! Great turn out! I think Noah had a very good time!

  

Noah is in half day kindergarten and I am soooooooo glad I chose to have him home all morning. He is the peace maker in our home. He is very helpful and plays extremely well with Callie. In fact I'm not sure what I would do with out him. Callie can be a little demanding and Noah is very sweet with her and will do just about anything to help her be happy. They have become very close in the past couple months and I just love witnessing it. Noah is very smart and successful in school. His parent-teacher conference went really well, Ms. Stradling told me he is at the top of his class. She can always rely on him to answer any questions and help other kids. He can read pretty well and really never complains about school. I am very excited for what the future holds for him. He's very in tune to what is going on around him. He's not perfect but just about as close to it as you can get. I wish he had to desire to ride a bike. But I'm sure with time that will just come with time. So happy to have this wonderful little ray of sunshine in our family!